Wyner-Ziv's theorem on source coding with side information available only at the decoder provides for an asymmetric video codec, where individual frames are coded separately in view of the side information, but decoded conditionally. Without such decoder provided side information, a Wyner-Ziv coder is unable to estimate the number of Wyner-Ziv bits to send to the decoder. This is because the number of Wyner-Ziv bits depends on a correlation between an input frame and a corresponding side information frame, which has not been able to be estimated at the coder. As a result, and without additional information being provided to the coder, rate allocation at the coder is typically not accurate. In view of this, conventional Wyner-Ziv source coding schemes typically employ a feedback loop between the coder and decoder for the decoder to request additional refinement bits from an coder to enhance decoded video quality. FIG. 1 shows a conventional Wyner-Ziv codec that implements a conventional request bits feedback loop 102 between the decoder and the encoder. Through this feedback loop 102, the decoder sends the coder the needed number of bits. However, such a feedback loop often results in unacceptable latency of video playback during real-time video streaming operations.